Thursday 17 March 2011

Starcraft 2 Woes, Patch Notes, Randomness

I've been playing Starcraft 2 since the beta came out, I've racked up about 500 or so games, which to the average gamer seems like a lot, but it really isn't. Whilst I would rate myself above the average Starcraft 2 gamer, I am also pretty bad myself (1700 Diamond).

My biggest problem is that it is extremely hard for me to control my anger when someone I clearly know is worse than me 4 gates and wins the game so easily. After a few losses I usually just log off and go watch a stream or play a different game, which is extremely counter productive to get better.

I guess I should really set a goal, I'd like to go pro, but it's just so much effort and the competition is fierce. I think my goal at the moment is to get in to Master's League,  which isn't that far away as long as I progress as steadily as I am (I was 1000~ Diamond last week).

It doesn't help that I play the hardest race in the game at the moment (Zerg), and no, it's not arguable, Zerg IS the hardest race, hands down. I dunno how I feel on balance at the moment, I mean there is some fundamental issues like Collosus, Sentries, Mules, Marines, and all the other 'questionable' aspects of the game--but so far this is probably one of the most balanced RTS' I've ever played.

Blizzard seems to be doing a good job at continually trying to fix the game, but I honestly think they should put more resources into it, but alas, it's not profitable to balance the game, only to churn out expansions with new units that break the game even more.

I might as well slot in what I think about the 1.3.0 patch notes here:

GENERAL
Players can no longer hide units by setting them in a close proximity patrol (ex: Viking flower).
(I doubt this will have any effect on competitive play, clumping up is generally a bad idea, especially against mutalisks or psistorms).

PROTOSS
Mothership
Units leaving the Mothership's Vortex are now un-targetable and immune to damage for 1.5 seconds.
(This is really just a bug fix, archon toilet is broken and unstoppable).

High Templar
Khaydarin Amulet upgrade (+25 starting energy) has been removed.

(Many toss are up in arms about this, and even I don't think it should be removed completely, why not just make it +15 energy or something, that way they can't storm as soon as they warp in and the upgrade still has some relevance).

Zealot
Charging Zealots will now hit fleeing targets at least once.
(Whatever, Chargelots will still be horrid).

TERRAN
Battlecruiser
Movement speed increased from 1.406 to 1.875.
(BCs are not that great, and this won't really change that, still, at least maybe Vikings can't kite them forever anymore).

Bunker
Build time increased from 35 to 40 seconds.
(I'm Zerg and I get bunker rushed a lot, but this won't really change a thing, I wish they'd just stick with a value rather than changing it every patch).

Ghost
EMP now drains up to 100 energy instead of all available energy.  The effect on Protoss shields remains unchanged.
(Meh).

Tech Lab
Stimpack upgrade research time increased from 140 to 170 seconds.

(This will help a lot, I'm so sick of getting stimpacked marine timing pushed from terran, but I guess now they will just go blue flame hellion instead which is even more of a pain in the ass lol).

ZERG
Infestor
Health increased from 90 to 110. -- This change has been revoked.
Fungal Growth
Stun duration decreased from 8 to 4 seconds.
Damage increased by +30% vs. armored units.
Now fires a missle instead of being instant cast. -- This change has been revoked.
(All in all this is a buff, and I can see infestors being used a LOT more in ZvZ, it's gonna be a huge damage dealer in the Mass Roach or Roach Hydra battles, not to mention gibbing huge amounts of speedlings and banelings, I think I'll incorporate Infestor in my Mass Roach style for sure. The only problem I think is that the Infestor in ZvP and ZvT is still somewhat useless, in ZvT the only reason to get infestor is to slow the enemy push down and buy you time to build up defense, in ZvP it's pretty much unused because of feedback).

Anyway, that's it. :)

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